Israel pounds Rafah in southern Gaza despite ceasefire calls, martyrs' toll at 32,333
GAZA, Palestine (AFP/Reuters) - Israel's military carried out new airstrikes in Gaza and laid siege to two hospitals on Monday, despite what the UN chief called a growing international consensus to tell Israel a ceasefire is needed.
Troops and tanks have encircled Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, the territory's biggest, for a week and more recently moved on the Al-Amal Hospital in the main southern city of Khan Yunis.
The Health Ministry said that at least 32,333 people have been martyred in the territory during more than five months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants. The toll includes at least 107 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 74,694 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
As combat raged on, technical talks have continued in Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal, and the UN Security Council was set to convene later in the day for a vote on a new ceasefire demand. Almost six months into the war sparked by the October 7 attack, global concern has mounted over the threat of famine in Gaza, and on Israeli plans to invade the crowded far-southern city of Rafah.
UN chief Antonio Guterres, on a crisis visit to the Middle East, has pleaded for an end to the "non-stop nightmare" for the 2.4 million people trapped in Gaza's worst-ever war. As Israel's top ally the United States has also voiced rising concern, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, was headed to Washington for talks with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin. Gallant said his focus in the United States -- which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid a year -- would include "our ability to obtain platforms and munitions".
'We are suffering'
The Gaza war broke out after Hamas's unprecedented attack of October 7 which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel has vowed to destroy the militants, who also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes around 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 presumed dead. More than 50 airstrikes rained down on the Gaza Strip, said the Hamas government press office. Israel's armed forces gave a similar number and said its fighter jets and helicopters had struck about 50 "terror targets" and "eliminated approximately 10 terrorists".
Food and water shortages have deepened the suffering, especially in northern Gaza where residents, mostly women and children, were waiting in line to fill up jerrycans and buckets in Jabalia. "We don't even have food to give us the energy to go to collect the water -- let alone the innocent children, women and the elderly," said one man, Bassam Mohammed al-Haou.
Another local man, Falah Saed, said "we are suffering a lot from water shortages because all and pipes and pumps have stopped working since the beginning of the war".
Hospital battles
UN vote on truce call
in the day in New York, the UN Security Council was to vote on a new draft resolution calling for an "immediate" ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages. Russia and China had vetoed an earlier text proposed by the United States, but Beijing said Monday it would back the latest version.
Permanent Council member the United States has unequivocally supported Israel's right to defend itself but recently tempered its support for Israel over its conduct of the war. The new text, according to the version seen by AFP on Sunday, "demands an immediate ceasefire" during the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan, "leading to a permanent sustainable ceasefire". It also "demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages" as well as the "lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale".
The text is being put forward by non-permanent members of the Security Council, who have worked with Washington to avoid a veto, according to diplomats speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity. One diplomat told AFP that "we expect, barring a last-minute twist, that the resolution will be adopted and that the United States will not vote against it".
